Finance announces the imminent sending of the 2024 budget schedules to Parliament and pledges the release of Kurdistan salaries on one condition
02-27-2024 By Sotaliraq Finance Minister Taif Sami announced on Monday that the 2024 budget schedules will soon be sent to Parliament. This came while hosting Sami in the Finance Committee.
The minister stated that “employees’ salaries for the year 2024 are fully insured,” noting that “the release of employees’ salaries in the Kurdistan Region during the current month is subject to submitting lists of names, and we have stipulated nationalization to disburse them during the coming months.”
She continued, “We have begun launching financing for the operational budget,” adding, “Soon we will send the 2024 budget schedules to the Council of Ministers for approval and sending them to Parliament.”
For his part, Member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Mustafa Sanad, said, “The Parliamentary Finance Committee hosted Finance Minister Taif Sami to discuss a number of topics, including financing the operational budget for the year 2024.”
Sanad explained, “The Minister informed the members of the committee that there is no interruption in funding the budget regarding operations and salaries of employees.”
Sanad continued, “With regard to the salaries of employees in the Kurdistan Region, and after the Federal Court’s decision, this month’s salaries will be financed in the usual manner in place through direct transfers. As for March salaries, the salaries of the region’s employees will be financed through the localization of salaries.”
He concluded by saying, “Funding the salaries of employees in the region will be through the governorates, meaning that the governorate that submits its data directly before the other will localize the salaries of its employees faster.”
Yesterday, Sunday, the Finance Committee in the Iraqi Parliament revealed that it will host the Minister of Finance tomorrow, Monday, to discuss the localization of the salaries of Kurdistan Region employees and the delay in distributing salaries throughout the country.
This comes after the Iraqi Ministry of Finance confirmed that it has taken measures and procedures to secure salary funding on an ongoing basis according to the 2024-2025 budget, denying at the same time political statements that indicated the lack of “financial liquidity.”
It is noteworthy that the Federal Supreme Court (the highest judicial authority in Iraq) decided, on February 21, to oblige the Federal Prime Minister and the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government to settle the salaries of employees and workers in the public sector in the region with federal banks.
The court also decided to oblige the submission of the monthly budget for the region’s employees to the Federal Ministry of Finance, while requiring the region’s Council of Ministers to hand over all oil and non-oil revenues to the federal government.
The ruling stressed that the decision to localize the salaries of the region’s employees is final and binding.
